From Late Night With Conan To The Big Garden on Rikers Island

Deborah Shaw was a successful costume designer in New York City. For 15 years she worked for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” creating hundreds of costumes for the program. But when the show opted to move to Los Angeles, she decided to stay in New York and do something completely different. And she gave herself a year to figure out what she wanted to do.

It was a long and circuitous road that eventually brought her to Rikers Island, one of the most dangerous prisons in America. Starting in 2009, she began working in “The Big Garden” — a two-acre plot amid the prison complex — helping prisoners via horticultural therapy.

Today she is building a new program for the Fortune Society using gardening to help individuals recently released from the prison system re-enter everyday life.

Second Act Stories is a podcast that shares the stories of people who have made major career changes to pursue more rewarding lives in a second act. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, GooglePlus or wherever you get your podcasts.